A MODEL OF HUMAN FACTORS IMPACTING ON HUMAN ERROR IN AVIATION

MAINTENANCE
Mohd Noor Hj Said1,a , Nooh Abu Bakar2,b, Ahmad Zahir Hj Mokhtar3,c
1

Universiti Kuala Lumour Lot 2891, Jalan Jenderam Hulu, Dengkil, Selangor,Malaysia
2
School ofgraduate studies, UTM InternationalCampus, Jln Semarak, Kuala Lumpur.
3
Universiti Kuala Lumpur, City campus, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia.
b

mdnoorsaid@miat.unikl.edu, noohab@citycampus.utm.my azmokhtar@.unikl.edu.my

Abstract. Aviation maintenance tasks are part of a complex organization, where individuals perform
varied tasks in an environment with time pressures, and sometimes difficult ambient conditions. These
situational characteristics in combination with generic human erring tendencies result in varied forms of
error. Analysis of existing aviation maintenance data is a crucial step in meeting the aviation industrys
need to improve aviation safety. This thesis approaches to develop a model of human factors that
impacting on human error in aviation maintenance. The model consists of three constructs; human
factors, organization and human error which an organization become a mediator in between human
factors and human error constructs. Questionnaire through the modified human factors SHELL model
was developed to categories the human factors variables that were derived from the literature review and
the opinions of aviation personnel who involved in maintenance. The data were obtained from 30 aviation
maintenance in Malaysia which has been listed in Malaysia Aviation Industry Report (MAIR). The total of
315 respondents was received during the period of the survey. Several analysis techniques were used to
analyze the survey data through exploratory factor analysis, reliability analysis and confirmatory factor
analysis. The result showed that there are significant human factors impacting human error, and the
result also provided approaches of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to verify the hypotheses in the
path analysis model. The model helped to determine the human factors underlying aviation maintenance
errors, ultimately helping aviation personnel to manage human error and safety issues in aviation
maintenance. The study contributes to the knowledge on human factors management and act as
guidelines to aviation maintenance practitioners and aviation authority in order to improve human factors
performance management in Malaysia aviation industry.
Keywords: Significant Human Factors, Impacting Human Error, Aviation Maintenance